People

Legendary film director Sydney Pollack, who died of cancer on May 26 at age 73, was the subject of a December 2005 cover story in Business Jet Traveler. Pollack-whose credits include The Way We Were, Tootsie and the seven-Oscar-winning Out of Africa-wound up in our pages because he owned a Cessna Citation X and ostensibly loved flying privately as much as he loved moviemaking.

As the often-controversial mayor of New York from 1993 to 2001 and as a candidate for senator in 2000 against Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani was not unknown outside the tri-state area of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. But it was the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that thrust Giuliani inexorably into the world's spotlight.

Some people have aviation in their DNA. Stanley Stub Hubbard got it from his father, Stanley Eugene Hubbard, who took up flying in 1916, started a few marginally successful airlines, opened an airport in Louisville, Ky., and helped organize the Metropolitan Airport Commission in 1943. By then he had already established himself in radio-and had passed on the flying bug to his son.

When Benjamin Murray decided 11 years ago to enroll in a flight school and get his private pilot's license, he didn't give much thought to where that interest might lead him. By his own admission, he lacked the patience to continue flying and soon gave up his pilot-in-command time, but the business aspect of aviation still fascinated him.

Paul Touw had barely finished high school when his entrepreneurial spirit started paying dividends. Enrolled at University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., and short on tuition funds, he noticed that the physics department lacked good lab books.

To find out more about Branson's latest brand, we spoke with the man who founded it and oversees its day-to-day operations.
What were you doing before this project came along?
I spent most of my career in the technology business and about three years ago was introduced to private aviation.As a passenger?

"I predict that you will either go to prison or become a millionaire." Those were the parting words to Richard Branson from the headmaster at England's Stowe School, when Branson left the institution at age 16.

James Dolan made news in the Pittsburgh business press in 1996 when he left a successful position as president and CEO of Federated Services Co., a subsidiary of Federated Investors, after 20 years with the well-established investment manager. To outsiders, it appeared to be a dream job.